Raised $7.25 million! What makes the world's only helium-electron quantum computing company a capital favorite

On August 23, EeroQ, a quantum computing hardware company, announced its first round of institutional funding after five years of research and development: a $7.25 million seed round led by multi-stage investment firm B Capital [1]. Other participants in the round were V Capital, Calibrate Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Unbound Ventures and Red Cedar Ventures.

Following the closing of this round, Dr. Howard Morgan, Chairman and Morgan Polotan, Senior Principal of B Capital, will join the EeroQ Board of Directors.

01EeroQ: Betting on a different kind of quantum line

Founded in 2017, EeroQ, unlike other players (e.g., IonQ with its trapped ion approach; D-Wave with quantum annealing; IBM, Rigetti, and others building superconducting gate model machines), is betting on mass-produced CMOS chips designed to build large-scale quantum computers using "electrons on helium" ( The EeroQ team believes that the advantages of this are that it allows very long coherence times (close to 10 seconds), fast gates, and the ability to rapidly scale the technology to thousands of quantum bits (although not yet fully realized).

Workflow of the EeroQ quantum computing line. Above left: Individual electrons build quantum bits. Trapping and control of a single electron floating above a superfluid helium pool; above right: trapping electrons in a microchannel. Microchannels are only a few microns in size, or about five times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Microchannels fabricated on silicon wafers filled with superfluid helium and energized electrodes, combined with the natural electron trapping properties of superfluid helium, allow precise trapping of single or multiple electrons; bottom left: control and readout. The microchannel region can store thousands of electrons, from which one can be plucked and delivered to the single-electron control and readout region - where microwave signals will interact with the electrons, perform quantum logic gate operations, and be read out by extremely fast electronics. Below, right: The operation of quantum computing. Quantum information can be encoded in many ways using single electrons. Source: EeroQ official website.

This quantum circuit was considered a creative design in the late 1990s, but was not feasible at the time due to technical limitations. Now, EeroQ has the powerful team and tools to bring eHe to the forefront of the quantum computing race to maximize the positive impact of quantum computing.

EeroQ's co-founders are Professor Johannes Pollanen, Nick Farina, Faye Wattleton, David Ferguson and Dr. David Rees. Today, EeroQ's core technology is patented and developed in collaboration with Michigan State University, having established its headquarters and laboratory in Chicago.

Group photo of members. Source: EeroQ website.

Specifically, EeroQ's design offers the following key advantages that promise to bring quantum computing to market faster.

The EeroQ computer's building block, the quantum bit, allows EeroQ to bring large computers up to thumbnail size, while many competitors have the size of a full-scale data center: this is because EeroQ uses a single electron - one of nature's one of the smallest particles in nature.

By using today's standard manufacturing process, CMOS, EeroQ can more easily scale from one mass quantum bit to thousands of mass quantum bits.

EeroQ's single-electron quantum bits also offer excellent potential in all quality metrics of quantum computing power: having long coherence times, full pair all connectivity, and the ability to move quantum bits around. In the long term, this will facilitate the improvement of the quality and number of quantum bits.

"EeroQ's quantum bit technology is at an earlier stage of engineering than some other quantum bits, but as we bring it to maturity, it will offer some key advantages. Our system promises to offer ultra-long coherence times, high quantum bit connectivity, CMOS compatibility, fast gate circuits and the ability to hold millions of electrons on a single chip - without the need for a modular design." Source: EeroQ official website

02Now is the perfect time for EeroQ to find a capital partnership

"We've been thinking about how to grow EeroQ since our founding in 2017, and now is the perfect time to find a top institutional capital partner. We don't want to rush into launching what we think is a special and unique product," said Nick Farina, CEO of EeroQ. "The small size of our equipment allows us to compete with all other efforts in a significantly more capital efficient manner. Our system has fewer moving parts than other types of QC designs, which gives us a huge advantage in terms of capital efficiency and time to scale."

B Capital led the round through its first dedicated early-stage fund, Ascent Fund II, designed to help global entrepreneurs lead the next wave of innovation through technology and digital enhancements. Ascent has closed in July after investing $250 million.

"B Capital's Ascent Fund is very pleased to invest in EeroQ, which takes a different approach to building quantum computers than is available on the market. It offers greater scalability than other technologies and, if realized, will greatly accelerate our ability to solve huge real-world problems and improve the lives of people around the world." Howard Morgan, chairman of B Capital, said, later adding that the promise of the technology's scalability was also a major reason for the firm's decision to invest.

The funding announcement is the latest milestone for EeroQ. The company recently recruited Steve Lyon, a Princeton professor of electrical and computer engineering, as chief technology officer and completed construction of its 9,600-square-foot state-of-the-art lab in Chicago. After choosing Chicago as its headquarters, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said earlier this year, "Chicago is poised to become a major hub for quantum technology thanks to a number of significant investments that will provide long-term benefits to our entire region. So in choosing to operate on Chicago's West Side, EeroQ will not only take advantage of the many opportunities that quantum technology presents, but also help revitalize communities in need."

Reference link：

[1]https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220823005723/en/EeroQ-Raises-7.25M-in-Funding-Led-by-B-Capital%E2%80%99s-Ascent-Fund-to-Build-Scalable-Quantum-Computer-With-Ethical-Focus

[2]https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/23/eeroq-bets-on-helium-for-its-quantum-chip-design/

[3]https://eeroq.com/